Investigation And Research On Compulsory Education Of The Children Of The Temporary Population In Yuzhong District, Chongqing

With China's reformation going in depth and the quickening of urbanization, labor immigration takes on a new trend - from individual maneuver to household immigration. Located at downtown Chongqing, the fourth municipal city directly under the central government, Yuzhong District booms its social and economic vitality due to its unique geographic locality, attracting, batch after batch, temporary residents and their offspring. Apart from merely mentioned in some of the policy documents of the local government, the issue concerning compulsory education of children of the temporary residents has practically not been touched by any expertise. Though the issue appears now and then in some academy book or magazine due to its theoretical generality, a systematic and detailed survey on a specific area on the issue is still difficult to pin down.In order to get a clear picture of the issue in Yuzhong District, the writer of this essay conducted a comprehensive survey by using questionnaire, door-to-door investigating;documenting;and sampling the temporary residents, students under compulsory education as well as educators in 8 schools. The findings of the survey resulted in accordance with the cases nation-wide in the following aspects: 1) It lacked fairness and equality when it comes to the compulsory education of the children of the temporary population;2) basically, the reason of the unfairness and inequality lies in the prevailing "graded school and graded management"~1 - different educational structure in the urban and rural area;3) in a considerable period of time to come, the number of the children of the temporary population in Yuzhong District will inevitably continue to increase.Viewed from the principle of fairness, all illegal charges attached to the compulsory education in the district as well as the whole nation should be outlawed. If the district plans to further develop its urban functions and to perfect its educational infrastructure, the following factors must be taken into consideration: The capacity of the educational infrastructure must not only furnish the satisfactory compulsory education to its permanent population, but also guarantee an adequate room for its temporary population. Nevertheless, the once-and-for-all solution to the issue depends on the whole society's transforming from statusy system to that of citizenship, leveling off the differences between cities and countryside. What is the most urgent issue is the state education reform: putting the responsibility in the hands of central government instead of distributing it to different levels of local governments.